FH overpowers Allegany

Nov 5, 2011
Mike Mathews

CUMBERLAND — The Clay brothers ran wild, the defense came up big and the Fort Hill Sentinels, a bit nervous in the early going, beat Allegany in a Homecoming landslide, 50-7, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Greenway Avenue Stadium.

Garrett Clay and Dylan Clay combined for five touchdowns and more than 300 yards rushing as the Sentinels posted a Maryland public school record 14th 10-0 regular season. Fort Hill, which has won five of the last six meetings, leads the all-time series 49-32-4.

Garrett Clay ran nine times for 155 yards and three touchdowns, while Dylan Clay ran seven times for 153 yards and two scores. Ryan Briner and Lance Fullwood had short touchdown runs, with Briner’s coming on the second play of the game.

Garrett Clay’s 86-yard touchdown run in the third quarter set a record for the longest run in Homecoming game history, breaking the previous record of 75 set by Allegany’s Eric Taylor in 1979, and Allegany wide receiver Calmon McKenzie tied a Homecoming record with five receptions.

While it was a Red and White afternoon to be sure, there were more than a few Sentinels at halftime feeling a bit blue.

A scoreboard, which read 21-7 at the time, doesn’t lie but it never tells the whole story.

“Believe me, at halftime it wasn’t good as far as the emotions on their faces,’’ Fort Hill coach Todd Appel said. “You could tell the kids were nervous. They were jittery in the first half. Everybody’s told them they should win this game in a blowout ... but Homecoming’s so different. That’s not the case with this game.

“But the kids feed into that frenzy a lot. You try to tell them not to. We played hard in the first half, but it’s 21-7 and everyone’s told them it should be a blowout. They were a bit frustrated.”

It may have been a lot closer, too, if not for Lance Fullwood’s diving interception at the Fort Hill three-yard line that stopped an Allegany drive in the final seconds of the half.

“The only thing that was going through my head was, ‘We can’t let them score! We can’t let them score!’” Fullwood said. “I was just in the right place at the right time and made a play for the team. I couldn’t have done it without the other 10 guys out there.”

After the interception, Fort Hill received the second-half kickoff and outgained the Campers 149-7 and outscored them 22-0 in the third quarter.

“The interception was real big,’’ Appel said. “Lance is a defensive back playing defensive end for us. He’s a tremendous athlete who’s done a good job with role playing this year.

“He blocks for us and plays great defense. He’s one of the most underrated players in the area. People don’t know much about him because he’s a role player. He’s such a good player and hard-nosed kid.”

Allegany (3-7) fumbled the opening kickoff, which was recovered by Fort Hill’s Marcus Lee at the 15, and Briner covered the distance in two plays, scoring just 30 seconds into the game.

The poor start didn’t faze the Campers, however, who put together a terrific 14-play, 63-yard drive, converting a pair of fourth-down plays, with Christian Thomas scoring on a fourth-and-one.

The drive ate up 6:52 of the clock and tied the game 7-7 with 4:38 left in the quarter.

Allegany put together an inspired first half, trailed by just 14-7 late in the second quarter, and had a 2-to-1 edge in time of possession. But the fumble on the opening kickoff led to Fort Hill points, and Fullwood’s interception likely kept points off the board for Allegany.

“Our defense rose to the occasion again,” Appel said. “I can’t say enough about them. They’ve defended everything this year, from speed to the spread and today Allegany went right at them and they found a way to survive that and get the ball back in our hands.

“These kids are special kids. They just need to keep their heads on straight for four more weeks and see what happens.”

The Campers also lost a fumble early in the second quarter at the Fort Hill 13. An interference call on a successful onside kick also kept the Campers from doing more damage.

“I was real pleased. I thought the kids came out and played hard and executed the game plan well,’’ Allegany coach Tom Preaskorn said of the first half. “They played their hearts out.

“We were outmatched and everybody knew we were outmatched. But the kids believed in themselves. We just couldn’t hang in there with their speed in the second half.

“We made a couple of mistakes and that was the difference in the first half or I think it would have been closer.”

Fort Hill’s Wesley Wills pounced on an Allegany fumble at the Sentinels 13 with 7:43 left in the second quarter, and four plays later Garrett Clay went around left end, got a final block from Evan Harden near the 15, and scored on a 58-yard run to make it 14-7.

After an Allegany punt, the Sentinels went 78 yards in five plays, the big gainer a 58-yard sideline dash to the Campers 12 by Garrett Clay, who scored two plays later on a 10-yard run, making it 21-7 with 2:39 left.

Carter Imes had a nine-yard pass to McKenzie and a 13-yard scramble to the Fort Hill 13 before Fullwood’s interception.

The Fort Hill defense was tested again in the third quarter when Alco’s Aniellio DeStefano recovered a fumbled Fort Hill handoff at the Sentinels 15.

But the Campers turned the ball over on downs, and the rest of the half belonged to Fort Hill, which scored on its next four possessions — drives of one, two, three and two plays.

After stopping Alco on downs, Garrett Clay ran 86 yards down the left sideline, and after an Allegany punt Dylan Clay got to the corner, dodged a defender at the Fort Hill 45 and went untouched down the sideline on a 55-yard run that made it 36-7.

A 35-yard pass from Dylan Clay to Fullwood set up a two-yard touchdown run by Fullwood late in the third quarter, and a Mike Austin pass to Dylan Clay in the flat turned into a 52-yard touchdown play when Clay beat a defender and sped the rest of the way, making it 50-7 with just over 10 minutes left. The 43-point victory margin broke the previous Homecoming record of 39, set by Fort Hill in a 1996 shutout.

“Fort Hill has incredible speed and a lot of weapons,’’ Preaskorn said. “I thought our defense did pretty well in the first half. They wear you down. They got to the corner and got some great blocks out there. With their speed, once they get the corner they’re hard to contain.

“But I was proud of the effort of this team. Being a big underdog as they were, they came out and played hard and never quit.”

Ryan Morgan ran 17 times for 57 yards and Imes ran 14 times for 55 yards for Allegany. McKenzie had five catches for 42 yards.

Fort Hill will host Brunswick on Friday in a Class 1A West Region semifinal.